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Shelfari: Book reviews on your book blog

Novelinks: The Kite Runner

Rewind five or so months ago and I was camped up in the basement of the HBLL pulling ideas out of my hat on how to teach The Kite Runner. It was for my teaching reading class: a project called Novelinks.

Novelinks is pretty cool actually. It is a website that any teacher can access where other teachers post ideas on how to teach a book. My trusty classmate Kasey and I spent a few qualities hours putting our project together and it payed off. Our grade was a 199/200, and I think we lost one point on the reflection (not even part of the project).

So the other day, like today, when I didn't feel like typing up my forever-and-a-day research paperz and lesson plan upon lesson plan, I mosied on over to novelinks.org and bam, our project had been published.

Because I know you are all dying to teach The Kite Runner, here it is.

(Some of the work on this link was done by another student, but the work done by Kasey and me is cited with our last names.)

What I have been reading

Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons.

I am a little bit over half way through right now. The book has such beautiful voice, and is able to create this voice not only with words, but also with style and grammar. It gives a glimpse into such a different life which fascinates me; although I do think it is important to be careful of the single story. This book is not a representation of a poor broken family in the south, it is a representation of one girl's life and experience. Still, fascinating. The quote on the front of the book says that Ellen is a southern Holden Caulfield, but she is so much sweeter than that. I am excited to see how Ellen turns out. Does she rise above all her tragedies and  find happiness? If only it weren't so close to the end of the semester and I wasn't so buried deep in lesson plans and unit plans and essays and papers, then maybe I would finish this book.

S. P. E.

The trick is to never let anyone know you are stressed, and have a billion things to do; make everyone feel like you have all the time in the world for them.

This is Sarah's secret rule number 243, which refers to the rules of how Sarah lives her life without even knowing about it. She doesn't even know about the rule book.

I have been thinking about that lately because recently, my life has felt so out of balance. In fact, right now I am sitting on the floor, next to a pile of unfolded laundry, with the Bible open to James on my left, and my nature poetry notes on my right, my phone open in my lap, and my running shoes over in the corner, wagging their tail, begging to go out. I am supposed to be heading out to take that midterm, but instead, I am blogging.

And thinking about Sarah. I am glad I have really cool friends. The kind that would jump in front of mucky-snow splashes for you, keeping you dry.

And since I am about to take my poetry of the natural world from Romantic era to present midterm. Here is a poem by Robert Frost.

Dust of Snow

The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree

Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of the day I had rued.

Bye-bye Winter! Welcome Welcome SPRRIINNNGGGG!

SOL March Challenge

During the month of March, there is a Slice of Life challenge that challenges all writers to write a little vignette or their day every day for a month. Love it. Yes, it will be hard, but I am going for it. You should too! Here is a pre-SOL:

Have I ever written about my recent obsession with baths? Well, they are great. Love them. It started small, just using that old tub because it was there, but I soon learned that, well, baths are amazing. Why have I not been taking them my whole life? There is a wide chasm in my bath taking experience between my toddler years to, well, a few months ago. This whole bath taking thing, it only grew bigger and better, started with just warm water and a book, but now I go for the whole, full on, stuffed taco - candles, bath salts, classical music, a bath pillow even. Now hold on now, don't bang it before you try it. When people talk about baths being relaxing they are not kidding.

So this morning was one of those Saturdays when you wake up and it is snowing. 'nough said. Maybe I stayed in bed longer then needs to be mentioned, eating oreos and listening to this podcast (selected shorts) that I quite enjoy. There was a fairy tale, a parody of Rabunzel, on this episode (Wondrous Woman: E. Nesbit's Melisande), and honestly it was pretty great writing. So anywayz, to pull myself out of this snow-globe morning, I decided to take a bath. Candles, some poetry reading for school, and bath salts: my feet always burn when I first step into the water. The rest, is history, or that's what they say. Baths are the best. Go take one right now. But actually, the truth is, our bath tub is the worst; it steadily drained trickle by trickle during my relaxing dip, but no bath tub is perfect ya know, so don't judge, just take a bath.

Everyone Should Know

Everyone should know I am obsessed with this blog. Maybe part of it is knowing the writer, but it is also just way good writing, with a sassy touch of colloquialisms and slang.

Self, Good Day

Check it out!

Poem a Day

A Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock

The houses are haunted
By white night-gowns.
None are green,
Or purple with yellow rings,
Or yellow with blue rings.
None of them are strange,
With socks of lace
And beaded ceintures.
People are not going
To dream of baboons and periwinkles.
Only, here and there, an old sailor,
Drunk and asleep in his boots,
Catches Tigers
In red weather.

 - Wallace Stevens

This poem has had a huge influence on my own poetry.

What I have been reading

In my reading, I came across 44 Aphorisms by Richardson. Here is number seven.

Ah, what can fill the heart? But then, what can't?

So true, this phrase is. One might argue that nothing can fill to fullness but love, which is true. A pure love for another human does fill the heart up so tightly. And for some people, this love may be hard to find, and so they ask, "what can fill the heart?" because they feel the lack. But also, our hearts are our own. I can do whatever I want with my heart. I can love whatever I want, worship whatever I want, serve whoever I want. And I think it is who I decide to love and worship that enters my heart and fills it. I want to give my whole heart to God, and in my experience, when I do that, He gives me back so much of His love so then I can better serve and love those around me. But I also must be careful not to let things of a lessor value enter into my heart. Because it is what we spend our time doing and our minds thinking about that enters into our heart and becomes a part of who we are. I just really enjoyed this aphorism; there is so much found in these eleven words.

For more about the LDS church go to www.mormon.org or www.lds.org.

Illuminated Texts: These are unreal

What I have been reading

The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom

Read it. It is sooo good.

                        Be thankful for the fleas.

Poem a Day

"Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" by Wallace Stevens.

For you, a thousand times over

What I have been reading: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Why you should read this book:

1. To better learn about the modern world outside the United States, and to better understand what happened in Afghanistan.
2. To see (and feel) Hassan's selfless friendship toward Amir.
3. To redefine sacrifice, and see both sacrifice and trials in a way most Americans don't understand. 
4. To know that failing to act or not doing something can be just as bad as doing something or committing a wrong. 
5. To really understand my favorite line: "For you, a thousand times over."

Why you should not read this book:

1. It is heart-wrenching. In my opinion, it was not too graphic, but the horrors that were portrayed are devastating.
2. You may lose some innocence in exchange for reader-experience and a better understanding of the world.

New List of Life Item: Watch a kite fighting festival in real life.

What I have been reading (and writing)

English 362 - American Literature from 1865-1914

Today we read some Dickenson. Poems number 5, 28, 39, 48, 637, and 1425. Check them out if you are interested. Then I wrote this shabby piece.

In Dickenson’s water whole

My soul estranged

Breathes

—Sometimes water—

“What and if indeed

There were just such a coffin

In the heart instead?”

Don’t die, little bird, I cry

For there is no coffin in my heart

So if you die, there will be no place

To put you. It will be empty

And I will be treading

For shore, as you fly

Fly, fly

Your melodies

you once gave to me, but no

they’re thine

First piece of poetry on the blog. No judging. Just sappy-should-be-studying-too-many-people-in-the-library type of poetry. 

What I have been reading...

if you are an American, you know the basics of American history - the revolution, Boston tea party, slavery, Gettysburg, Pearl Harbor, Nine Eleven. But what most Americans don't know, and what I didn't know before I started flipping through the pages of my American literature anthology, is the personal and real stories of the people who made up America and American ideals today. They were wrong about things; they were right about things; they did things, things that made a difference.

Most recently, I just read Harriet Jacobs account of being a slave. Even a peek into the dark side of America reveals such courage and strength. Without strong men and woman like her, America today would be different. Even though she had almost everything taken from her, they could not take away her voice.  I shudder to read what happened during the time of slavery, but I also applaud slaves like Jacobs who changed her world, and changed ours.